china has really had this imprinted on their psyche and they're really quite nationalistic. when they hear these other versions of history, which are in the millionaire to them. in some cases they simply don't believe that is true. they think this is, you know, a sort of western of their history that this is all biased. it's impossible. it just could not happen now play in assist another example of the western world and how it is biased towards china. and so, this too is one of the reasons why wanted to write this book because i really wanted the students coming out of china to read something and she read other versions and at least consider the possibility of order to try and break that silence. thank >> booktv is on twitter and

facebook, and we want to hear from you. tweet us, twitter.com/booktv or boast a comment -- post a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> coming up next, jack devine talks about his 32-year career with the central intelligence agency to arm the huge that deeb in afghanistan and was involved in the iran contra a affair. this event was hosted by the association of former intelligence officers. it's just over an hour. >> good afternoon, everybody. for those of you who have not purchased the book, you need to go out and buy the book. for those of you who already have a book in your possession, you need to turn to the photographs. [laughter]

and find a wonderful photo of jack devine, a much younger, slimmer, longer-haired jack devine undercover in santiago, chile. not for the in-house audience, but for the at-home audience, i am going to read just a little from the the happenedbill so -- handbill so those at home can follow along with us. many consider jack devine to be one of the legendary spymasters of our time. he was in chile, he ran charlie wilson's war in afghanistan, he had far much to do with iran contra for his own taste, and he actually tried to stop it at one point. he caught pablo escobar in colombia. he tried to warn george tenet that there was a bullet coming back at him for iraq. in 1986 he walked into our director, bill casey, and said we had a tremendous breakthrough

yesterday, we deployed the stinger missile and shot down three helicopters. mr. devine is a 32-year career officer with the cia. he began in the 1960s. he has a brand new book out called "good hunting" which is on sale today, and he'll be glad to sign copies after today's session. he'll also take q&a. jack devine was already an established field operations officer when i joined cia, and if you can keep a secret, i'll share a little bit of history with this small, intimate room. [laughter] jack devine was the kind of clandestine services officer that i wanted to be when i grew up. please join me in welcoming jack devine. [applause]

>> what jim really meant to say at the end of that, he wanted to be like me because of that picture. [laughter] and those of you that have gone to see "american hustle," they are plaid pants. i had long hair and a moustache, and i could have easily at that point in time played in the role of "american hustle." the fortunate thing -- and by design, i didn't put the color in there but they were bright yellow. and i believe peter sort of tormented me once saying do you still have pants for the museum? [laughter] you can't tell a book by its cover, and this isn't because of vanity. i love the cover of the book. and if you look at it, one of my employees took the book home and showed it to her young daughter,

and she said, well, mommy, i thought he was a nice man. [laughter] and with a book you have to have some fun, and there's some private jokes in here. the picture with the pants is funny because i've often heard how can you be a spy at 6-5? those of you, and there's a lot of practitioners in here and it's wonderful to see them all, it's not about what you look like or your size, you get et done in the ip visible -- ip visible -- invisible space that exists. that was sort of a private joke. but the picture has some roots that go back in my career. and as i said, i always thought i was a pretty affable person. one day when i was in a central american sort of country -- because i can't say which country -- but the ambassador was going up the elevator,

former chief of station in south vietnam, last one out. and tom said to the ambassador, you know, i want to send devine out for that task, and the ambassador said you don't mean that big, sinister-looking guy? [laughter] so i went home and i mentioned this to my wife, and i said you won't believe what the ambassador said, this big, sinister-looking guy. and she said well, jack, if i walked in and saw your face and doesn't know you in your office -- didn't know you in your office, i'd turn around and walk out. [laughter] so i went to this fellow in this room that i believe had his back to me, and i said, jerry -- [laughter] you know, what do you think? and he said, well, jack, do you ever see how you make a point? [laughter] so, however, what it really gets to in a way is the role-playing that operators undertake in

their mission. and if you fast forward when i was running latin american division in the 1990-'92 period, as you remember, president clinton wanted to rethe dictators -- remove the dictators in haiti. and tony like -- tony lake was the director, and he called me down and said, look, we want you to go down and tell the dictator to get out of town. now, this speaks to my iq. i thought it was a great idea. [laughter] to go to this country. the chief down there, however, and i'll add a little note on him at the end, but -- so i went down, and the office had a report that chief of police at the time had gone out to the voodoo doctor and put some powder on him. and he came because he was fearful, god knows why.

but the -- when i went down, he came to the chief's house. it was just the three of us, and there was water. he wouldn't touch the water. and then for those of you that engaged in poisoning, you realize that pumpkin soup is one of best things to disguise poison in. in comes the maid with pumpkin soup. [laughter] so i thought he was going to the die on the spot. now, when you get instructions from the white house on your script that's used as it was in this case, now you say this, and he will say that. then you say this, and he says that. i've never been in an operational meeting where you can script it that way. and i'm irish, so when i, when i went down to the room i decided bad jack has to show up. so he was seated at dinner, and i said, look, i want to tell you a story that a latin friend of mine told me.

the latin friend said, you know, you americans are like that train roaring down the track, and we're the latins in the middle of the track, and we see you coming, and we puff out our chest, and we say bring it on. and there's a very important lesson if you're working in latin america. so i thought that was just the right poetic thing to lean across and say you do not want to be that rooster. now, i thought i made my point, but it wasn't tony's script, and they didn't leave even though i had a large bag and and the menacing message. and a week later jimmy carter was at the table negotiating with the general, and they were not budging. and he received a message from the president of the united states saying you should leave the meeting. and he kept jawboning. and we were ready, the cia was ready with its covert action capabilities, and the planes

were taking off from the runway in florida, and the spotter notified the negotiators, and they folded on the spot. and the dictator and chief of police specifically went to florida. where else would you go if you're a dictator and you're on the run? he got on the radio and said they sent this menacing guy down who threatened to kill me, my wife and my children. now, i promise you, i never said anything about the wife and children. [laughter] so what i'm getting at is, you know, there is a role-playing. i did a little piece for "homeland," the tv show. not the show itself, but a promotional piece. and you know you've arrived in new york when you're in that 30 second thing in the back of a cab, and that was where it was. but one of the questions in the interview was how much is covert -- not covert action, how much is operational work like an

actor? and i never thought about the question. but it is true, when you deal with foreign governments and foreign liaison and you're dealing with assets and agents, you really do need to act, and you have to be a good one. if you get beyond -- well, we should stick with the cover. i love, took me two years. again, there's an iq issue to come up with two words: good hunting. and i don't need to explain it to people in the room, but it's a very old adage used by operators. and i think the first point where i see it noted in history is in kipling's "jungle book." but if you look to some of the classic world war ii black and white movies and there was one, frankly, i named it before i saw this. they were breaking up the meeting, and the parting solly was "good hunting."

and i know i have signed memos where there's a certain point in an operation where you say "good hunting." i thought that captured a key part of the business whether it's hunting for a source of information or hunting for bin laden or hunting for pablo escobar, it's the, you know, a key part of our business. ..

and then you did the paramilitary training, you were free post world war ii, you had to jump out of the plane. 68-69 was optional. hi was married with three kids, three weeks of fact of all of this and i am out of here so i said to my wife i think i and just going to go to the beach. she said you will miss all the camaraderie. i said i like them as time goes by. i am going to enjoy the beach. then i went and he said it is better than sex and he said okay, this is getting interesting. i took a second look at him. he is missing something. when i applied for different offices and didn't know any better -- any better at a covert

action, it took place in the line division. covert action, i went in and there was probably parachuting memorabilia and i walked in, have you jump yet? it is the greatest thing man can do. no, but i am looking forward to it. not for camaraderie but for career i would jump out of a plane. i did that five times and i will assure you i had that wrong. but i didn't excel in demolitions either. chris is here. we were down for demolition. they came out with an instructor missing a couple fingers. he said it is dangerous dealing with explosives. i got it.

you didn't have to speak any more. than you blow up polls and they are detonating cords and they burned at a certain rate. i don't remember is the rate and they would have six seven polls. i always thought to myself, a couple more inches to give yourself more time. poll one would go, paul 2 would go, 4, 5, they would go, they didn't think it was funny as i did. and in my file somewhere it said this man should not be allowed near explosives. in 1986 i was responsible for more explosives than anybody, so it was a necessarily direct but the last thing was the flesh can. today with electronics, you don't think about physical brush pants but i was in mary kantor's

district and had to -- i had a beautiful thing, it was wonderful, couldn't see it from any angle so i had my hand ready, slate of hand and the instructor went by and didn't put his hand out so when i got to the bottom of the steps, i am a gentleman but i didn't engage in a really gross hand wrestle. don't have to worry too much about it. when i got back to camp, they said we have a treat and the treat is for the first time, we video the brush pans today. who could pass off the first line is the first one. i >> reporter: that skill. i was in amsterdam with my wife tweet 2 years ago and bill weiner was being particularly solicitous. we have a little more wine so i gave him the 20-year-old pass. any new yorker would be proud

but you know your wife, you look across and you know something is fundamentally wrong. a half smile means trouble. would you doing? to brush past but you left it to our waiter. anyway. things got quite serious actors that. it was great fun. i feel nostalgia pecans so many folks are here from my past but i ended up the very first assignment, the most fortunate experience from an operation. there were two places in the world that were high priority, one was vietnam and the other was chilly and the reason it was so important was the -- nixon

himself, henry kissinger, felt in the cold war so many of our children and grandchildren talk about the colewort is talking about other things. so nixon viewed it as a red cent which. she lay was the secochile was t communist party in world. yen they was elected with the plurality but in a very democratic country with the democratic history. so an instruction went from the white house to the agency to the field station chief who is long dead and gone like to mention, a great operator, european officer. he wrote back a cable saying it can't be done. we don't have the

infrastructure, not enough popular support and it is going to be very messy and the response came back give it a good college try, put in government language but that was that. they gave it their best shot and it ended up a disaster. it was the road group not tied to the cia that tried to kidnap the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and kill him in the process and the entire country turns in favor of yende. there are a couple lessons but i think i want to make a key point right here. many people confuse the chile coup that took place in 73 with that'd venture. next cables that came said cease and desist, you will not plot with the military and that state in a vote until the entire yende

administration. in 1973 in september, in june there was a mini coo and the cia's official position after it that, highly intoxicated teen drivers drove in front of the palace, the commander-in-chief went and talked to the guy. our analysis of the agency was clearly the military stood behind the constitution and would not overthrow yende and that was in late june. what happened, we found out only later that it was that moment that the chilean military went back and started -- wasn't about the constitution, wasn't about yende's economic policies. they were afraid they were losing the discipline of military ranks and faber going to take charge of the coup.

has circumstances would have it, i received the first report that notified the u.s. government that the yende government was going to be overthrown three days before and i did not even receive the poll, it went to my wife who knew this s and said i am at the airport and i am leaving. there will be a coup on sept. eleventh. i was dragged out of a restaurant to get that message. that was the first time. three days before we learned yende was going to be overthrown and there was the second report. at that point we sent in a message and everyone was well aware of, the rest of the store you know. what surprised everybody, all the opposition partners, i

should note we didn't work with the military to overthrow yende but we contributed and i worked at the newspapers for my party and friends it to support the opposition but that is quite different. we contribute to the environment, yes, what was the weight of its? in my analysis, the government really fell on its own. its economic conditions, policies and my expectation was we had gone to an election, yende would have lost and we might have had a different outcome. went pineche came to power, we were not expecting it. chile was a democratic country, they bring water and there would be an election. you couldn't find anybody who would tell you if they would be around for 19 years and then the

human-rights violations which were huge, that surprised everyone. took us a while to find out about it and when we did the relationship killed. when i was getting ready to leave the new chief said you have been here long time. what do you think? right a memo. i-man advocate of covert action and i will come back to that in a minute so i wrote -- i had the long hair and hands and i said we will use covert action to get rid of pineche so that is where my mind was and i wasn't alone on that. so i think in the world out there there is a view the weaver strong supporters of pineche, that wasn't true. foreign affairs magazine which comes out next week takes the chile chapter and reduces it to the length of the article and it is titled what really happened in four different places? it is such a hot-button even

today that it surprises me. i got ahead of myself in a way because this book isn't about the heavy into the espionage part. you can really write about it because so many of the agents can't write about agents, this is about the action and for those, not audience like this but over the years people get confused between covert and clandestine. you all note covert is the james bond never meet an agent, never take a report, never do an accounting and the espionage is plodding along, getting his agents, handling the darkness so the two different types. this is the action part. not only do i believe it is the central part, i believe it is going to be and should be at major role of statehood. the stimulus for the book came because there's another author we're not going to mention because we don't want to promote

his book, but when he wrote his book, saying the agency was a rogue element and covert action never works i was inspired, that is a nice word, to see if we couldn't point out the cia made up a lot of very fine people and action not only works but needs to be applied. someone will have questions about where we are today, but that is one of the key things in the book. on sean connery and covert action, i was in an undisclosed country. don't google, you will find where it was, i was sitting in this restaurant and in walks sean connery and i was with my wife. and the head of the service. there was fluttering in the

room, all of the women and some of the men. i will blame the other service chiefs, he said we are the real thing and they both broke out laughing saying you have got to be kidding! there is 007, you are justly to bureaucrats we have been married to for a long time. it used to annoy me, those movies but let me move on. i can't get bogged down in things. i went to other latin american assignment and because they are in the collection area i can't really talk about them in detail, there's no reason to. i can write this book, there is a young man here who is going out to the field and i used to remind people when you do covert action, in your lifetime, you will have a chance.

i never thought back then, covert action becomes something. so i was assigned to the iran branch, 1985, i wanted a change of pace. as jim mentioned early on. i just got the iran branch, i knew very little about iran. and time mentioned him that he has been scratched. at that time i got a call from but european division chief is it your going to be called by the director and a few minutes. great. you don't get a call every day at the branch. and wind into the room and said we want you to go out and meet a contractor with the white house and he has a source who is really valuable and can tell us

information about the hostages in beirut so i went out but i went downstairs and there is my deputy holding a two inch file and he said jack, this is bad news. we have a burn notice out, two sets of polygraphs, he is an arms merchant. we shouldn't be touching this. god bless the deputies. when i wrote the book there were 80 people we interviewed. some aren't in the book because their family members are tied to the agency and cause problems. some didn't say anything worthwhile. there are a lot of people being interviewed so i called him because we were doing iran and i called the man turned them over to one of the folks in my office so you have an independent, non chatty discussion sticking to the message. i remember calling this fellow

and i had spoken to him for 25 years and he came off of the tractor. you on the tractor and came in and i said this is jack devine and i heard a gas. i know that call, i know what that is. that is jack devine got me into something and did is legal, something we did back then that needs to be addressed. relax, i am writing a book and the second thing, one of the beauties of writing a book, i got a chance, you know the movie 400 days with a guy goes around i really lost your number and it was an opportunity to is a paint you in a robust way. i did that, they are in their 80s and they were touched but so was i. that was one of the benefits and the reason i mentioned it is he really stopped me from going

down a path not knowing a person i was dealing with but i went down and met him and what i found was they have already exchanged hostages, it was right before christmas time. i was truly stunned. yet i was in mid career. took a beeline for the chief of division. hand was a weekend and we were both flabbergasted. went to see clair george and casey. there is some dispute about who knew what and so on but when i mentioned it to clear he bent over, put is head between his legs and hands over his eyes. i can't tell you whether he knew or didn't know, but it was a stunning moment. anyway i thought i saved the crown by recommended we polygraph, one of the great

calligraphers here. a third time gets us out of this mess. he did. he flunked the test will be. he got his name, i am not even sure of that answer i was going to reported upstairs and he said don't bother, we're out of it, they will no longer be involved. they didn't tell me the second part which is they hand off to the agency. a couple months later, it was february, tom called and said jack, you won't like this. the president signed the finding and we are going to do the shipments. you don't have to deal with this -- fisherman's. it was one of those points you think is so bad it won't happen, just can't have it fall apart.

that thing took off, it was a bad policy, it was run out of the white house, it was not coordinated, bad policy wasn't against the law. what happened, however, is we were asking for $1 million per missile and they were being charged $2 million, the extra million went to central american operations and that was a violation and produce the iran-contra affair which almost brought down the reagan administration and again, when you look at what goes wrong i actually believe it works very well. if you get an interagency coordinated packet you brevet down on the hill, you are going to have to have americans support, your chances of getting it turned into a flat our

minimum. we don't need to go into the history. you will read more here. i went on to do afghanistan. i set 20 feet from the office that was running afghanistan and i had no idea that it was a program of many magnitude. then i walked in as if i were running a war. if you think back to 1985-'86 we actually fought the russians were winning and the measure had been wewere blacked out. the helicopters -- jim mentioned charlie wilson's war but it was not charlie wilson's war. he was a great guy. he was a devoted to the project,

a smart guy, naval graduate, naval academy graduate, flamboyant for sure, but the program was actually a republican president, democratic congress working with government people, working with rules and regulations of that government, supported by an ally, pakistan, you had a group of people who wanted to fight and where robustly funded. that is not a good movie, but it is the truce. charlie, i will give charlie maximum credit, he actually told me he told me after he retired from congress and i left the agency, let's have dinner, i am coming to new york, great. always found him fascinating. i want to state dinner at sparks, the restaurant where the head of the mafia was murdered on the front steps. i was aware of where charlie

wanted to eat. when i walked in and sat down, you didn't like the book, you are going to hate the movie. i traveled -- charlie was on him to do something. 9/11, use a great writer, he turned it into a good book. my concern was people were going to think that that is how you do covert action. they get it done. i believe in covert action but it has to be organized, plan, funded, supported. you have got to be able to pass the test of being reviewed and that is where the book goes wrong. i pay great tribute to charlie. i wanted to correct the record. he knew the true story.

there was an hbo series and they had charlie in a hot tub. how he got inspired to get into and i had a small role because the helicopters were shot down, i ran the photos up so there was some actor playing my role. i think i had 10 or 12 but the first three were stunning. i thought the calls were going to be back -- jack didn't just think your chase history but in the hot tub with charlie wilson. i was a little annoyed. not a hot tub but i won't be there with charlie wilson. you could he is the enthusiasm coming out and i guess he is the coward we thought he was all along but the third call, okay, got this, i don't want to talk about it.

so i left it but with my wife at it i was not there with charlie. i won't point him out but there is a fellow here who made those fingers physically available to me. we tried everything, tried everything and eventually i was at the white house and there was a demonstration, it was -- our troops didn't have it in the field. it was coming off of the assembly line. go out and make a right turn and blow a helicopter up and everybody sat there, we have to put the first u.s. armament into the fray. at the time general dynamics was estimating a 25% success rate. it was 75 at the time. a man ahead of his time sent a

video camera to the scene so for history you have not been without great wit, cut the first picture because the missile flew out along the ground, $60,000 rolling down the ground. i saw it, there was another piece of -- inadequate equipment might have been a different phrase. then banged out of the sky, it changed the war and played a big part in changing history. why did it change the war, that day the russians started flying above range with these things. at that point of the weapons across the border, personally i signed off on buying more trucks to get the weapons across.

the last leg where mules. i am a city folk. the chief of division from tennessee said jack, tenn. mule's don't work. you got to have mules that work in the hill. the only place we get them is. like the western rodeo they would drive 9,000 meals across china. and hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons, they gave me a little reminder but when you think of wars, you start going down the line. why afghanistan is important, gave you the reasons supported

by the people, fighters wanted to fight, you have all the ingredients. afghanistan went to rome and the book is about covert action with one exception and rick gains flows through the book. because the other part of the business is betrayal, how we look for people to recruit them ended is unfortunately what we have to look at when we were betrayed. my very first day in the office, he would argue about the importance of counterintelligence with some irony and as a kid i kept saying how important those special activities at the u.s. government, we traded books, he gave me a book, caught them for

demetrias by eric ambler, double agents, spying, i gave him a book, the psychopath ology of leadership from 1930 -- a freudian book. if you are weaned on the left you will be left -- left -- you will be a republican. what i was getting at is people were destined in certain places so if you fast-forward, i had dinner with him, i haven't seen him for 25 years. he went to the bookcase, pull it up and said this is your book. i should have had him sign it, it would pay for one of the kids's education but when we think about these things it is important to get the psychology. i had sandy grimes who has written a book and has gone

along with chief vertebrae that they hunt for. to make sure i didn't miss parts of it. he had a drinking problem, was the son of -- his father was a failed officer, he was estranged from his father, a tenuous relationship. he dropped out of school, came back, i thought he was smart and well written, not as smart as he thought he was. he would like to do abc but not d e f. he was always an underperformer but was smart enough to study russian. the gap, i think we can see this with some of the developments today, when you think you are really smart a you have an ego

you don't need to -- intellectual you think you are smarter than everybody else, and you don't work hard, regardless, you are going to see people pass you by and you get run over with the system and what do we look for when we look for traders? we look for people who are dissatisfied with in their system in that range so rick was moving in that direction. the fact that he had the natural accent to the russian embassy, the position he had at the cia provided him an opportunity to walk in and look like it was a normal event. he thought he could handle the russians. he was only going to give them a little bit. and he left having turned over 11 of our agents who were all killed.

when i was in rome, we have a walk-in. rick campbell -- it is written -- only half -- they tell half the story. rick said jack asked me to go out and i didn't think it was safe to go out and interview him. too dangerous in the safe house and where in the world do we not meet somebody securely? we can't do it and need to reinvestigate. it must have been -- i don't remember that part of it but i will take it at that but it was a polygraph. doesn't mention that. nick was worried that if it was polygraph it would show is there a source inside the cia and he was degenerated so the policy was you got and have a polygraph and if you have any problems you come back and we go over the

questions so i walked in monday and i said how did it go? we did six, seven, eight times and i don't know what we have. just like the haitian dictator, i said what i you doing? write this thing. what was interesting, i am sure he was irate but he said absolutely nothing and in spanish is that moment that means watch out. it didn't mean he was a spy, for the first time i felt this subtle resentment because i think he thinks we were friends but good luck. city came to me years later and jean, we have to have a meeting with you, we can't have it in

our offices in a particular spot. we have a mole, we have got the list down. can rick gains be a spy? i said yes. the only person i ever met in the agency who could be. there was that instantaneous connection. the fact that in my own mind he represented in retrospect the ingredients of the trade. we know how that ended. i wanted him interviewed for the book. i couldn't do it for obvious reasons. i did see the one interview on television, absolutely amazing, the interviewer, brilliant question, says did you have any trouble sleeping at night?

there is a momentary pause. i thought he was going to have a problem but i didn't have a problem. you have a first-class psychopath's. it speaks to -- i went into the counter narcotics program where i found a new way of doing business, it was a community business, providing a higher level of support than i ever thought. i thought that should have become the model not only for the centers but the agency at large. i eventually ended up on the seventh floor which was fascinating. i will leave it for the book because i don't have time here. my chief of staff is here, held me up during that time. a lot of people held me up everywhere along the way. it captures the -- you don't touch another agent, to see a lot of the foreign service

chiefs. she describes how she would be in the office at 6:30 and you start to read and read and try to narrow the pile down for only the decision papers so that at that point early on, we could go through the decisions and at the end of the day she had to take the paper's home and never got through them. that is to my mind if i think back to that, what did i do, i met people and did nothing but make decisions and i loved it. you can't do it too long without wearing you down mentally and physically but that's is the job and i thought i was the only one. i don't want to stir up security why they put a safe in your house, so many ways that could go wrong but they did and you

take home a suitcase at the end of the day and i said it -- m.i.t. only when? hit bill studeman had two suitcases. i went to an undisclosed country. given the photos you might be able with your analytical skills to sort that out and i left the agency and went into private practice, created a private sector intelligence company network, the type of things that you do and spent a fair amount of time talking about it but it is like our business, in the best cases i can't talk about it. what i try in the book, i am going to read one point. i will not read a lot here. they tried to turn some of the important covert actions, i

tried to humanize them so could understand the kind of people we are, the cia is made up of your neighbors. i worked in stories of my family but i have an op-ed that may come out dealing with how do you tell your children you are covert operator. you have to do it if you are going overseas in seven countries and i have six children saliva pretty experienced guy in the field. i had a policy or plan, you catch some early teens back in the united states and i was traveling between rush washington and the jersey seashore. i would wait until i got on to the bridge, you see a father and daughter having it out with the bridge you know what is going on. the first two, 13 and 14, that

is cool. turn up the radio. it was not a big deal. the fact that i wasn't a state department embassy officer, i hit my middle daughter at 16. there is a huge difference between 14, and 16. c i a operative, the response was father and assassin. that is why we got the other hour-and-a-half to work my way back. and the point is you have families. i took language school with pat and patch looms large. and it is not possible. we were taking a italian and my

deputy -- mike hoganson, very good linguist. pass and i were new yorkers. he is always wise enough to play, he wasn't as good. we were taking -- we were practicing going from washington to of the shore and i had the temerity -- i don't think it is the right thing. the window rolled down and out roles the textbook on a roof, 95 and that was the end of the italian lesson. when you see james bond runarounds speaking italian and doesn't have any children, i try to humanize the angst.

when you fall in love with your book that doesn't mean it is not flaw. intelligences about hunting for information about our enemies as well as for ways to neutralized, then i go on to name some of them but the very last paragraph, france's thomson, the nineteenth century poet wrote him directly about man's perpetual flight for god. the language applies where relentless pursuit of our adversaries in the world. i fled down the night and down the days and down the labyrinthine ways across the margin of the world. thompson concludes man cannot out when his destiny. america's enemies cannot out run intelligence.

[applause] >> i will take questions. yes, sir? go ahead. [inaudible question] >> let's hope there is a second edition. i remembered -- you can give your punch line. >> you started the book talking about the junior high school, then you make a point, if you are a high school student, read this book and it will inspire him or her to covert action in the agency a new link that a little bit because of today, page 99. you came close today but not

quite. page 99 says charlie wilson's war existed in charlie wilson's mind. he held the appropriations, but taking on our most powerful institution in america, hollywood. $100 million network. tom hanks, $100 million net worth. >> i am broke. >> in the wall street journal review, you pick up on the very first thing, kind of like the way you are introduced, getting it wrong the. they are saying you and me too, we worked for charlie wilson which is a hoax. george, bill casey, president reagan, you tell it exactly right in the book but why not

use this punchline on page 99, charlie wilson's war existed only in charlie wilson's mind. >> it is quoted in there. it does say it was only in charlie wilson's mind but it doesn't come from the budget comes from frank anderson. what i am saying, it was the u.s. government program. and legal. no question about it. since you mentioned hollywood. all of us cringe. i don't think i read an ian fleming book all the way through. i read a chapter or two. it just doesn't work. he was in the business. imus tell you over the years i change my mind about hollywood. they are looking for me. danny devito will play me. zero dark 30, we have problems, when you think about the bottom line, it must be jack, every

16-year-old leaving that theater wanting to be maia. james bond, you want to look like sean connery, or a second option. who doesn't want -- it helped us for people to think we were so powerful that there is the mystique about us. hollywood -- to the point -- i tried so many different things for propaganda for the afghan war. hold up signs. i could have controlled the world if i had the social network. the most powerful propaganda piece was rambo iii. size alone with a machine gun attacking the bad rations. the russians in afghanistan, more than anything i could. i talked to mendez about argo. he will tell you there was no

plane, they were not being chased by cars down the road. they shredded. but there is more true for in the hollywood version because how do you project that feeling of risk, your stomach is in nazi. you can't do it with cinematography. in a way hollywood is playing it for the audience. i also give the audience a level of sophistication. they understand hollywood. my own sense, may be in washington i remember it gets a little distorted, we have the c i a memorial foundation. a number of my clients wrote checks not because they had a contract, there is a lot of patriotism and support for the cia and we had some big bumps in

our history. we continue to have them and not all of everything is a downside in the hollywood world. sometimes they get in front of trends and that hasn't been our strong suit lately. >> my question was in 1987, fidel castro released a film about c i a operations in cuba. the porch rail is cuban intelligence always was victorious but i would think the story is more complicated. what could you tell us, what could you share about cuban intelligence, what kind of opponents they were and perhaps u.s. successes? >> most people worked in latin america at a high regard for cuban operational skills.

they had no language skill and if we go back to the yende period there was a fervor that they were able to project and in the world we live today, talk about islamic fundamentalism and the threat it poses, communism was a real threat but russia, just terrible. cuba is dale. it is a revolutionary threat that has . it is a revolutionary threat that has been done for decades. there was an officer who felt satisfied got the upper hand. today i would say it is a much easier target.

once you have the fervor -- i know your questions about cuba but the world we live in today is about terrorism. they have a bruising hand. it is not saying they are not going to close this great grief, but it is not a winning ideology and over time, part of our struggle should be working the thought process of it, how to find within the muslim world people who stand up and say that isn't what crime is about, try to push this back. this is an ideological war. i don't doubt that we could handle them. i am very outspoken on enhanced interrogation. i don't believe it is right. on drones i am an advocate of drones.

you can't pigeonhole me. why am i an advocate of drones? after 9/11 everyone is talking asymmetrical warfare. how do we deal with these rogue states, wrote individuals as opposed countries? we were fearful and i don't doubt for one minute that there is a terrorist to is and where they are not on the face of the ears two minutes later and the drones level that playing field. it should be used carefully and so on. that wasn't about cuba. they get a lot of respect. i don't fink i have a lot of success personally. i don't know anyone who does. hopefully someone in hiding. yes, sir? >> to the current time. >> the mic is over here.

>> you have a good voice, i might add. >> can you hear me? >> you are closing in. >> afghanistan -- as we pull out, what is your feeling? the taliban is resurrecting, coming back, across borders with wild west and pakistan, do you see we wasted our time or what do you think? >> there is no reason you would know my background but i have been outspoken and again in polite society, you invited me to get what you get, i really thought the iraq war was a huge mistake and we have the finest military in the world, don't worry the russians think they can handle this militarily. there is nobody. even the terrorists know the strength of our military. i thought george bush sr. even though at that time i didn't get why he didn't go all the way and

in retrospect it was a brilliant strategic move so i am not surprised about what happened in iraq. i was for going into afghanistan, bringing down the taliban, the cia with special forces together did a brilliant job. by my standards some were young men, in afghanistan dealing with the same people we dealt with -- a lot of the principles are the same people. i am for getting out after that and keeping special forces and cia below the radar. i think nation-building in afghanistan, i watched the russians. the russians didn't just go there and put an autocratic hand on it. they built schools and highways. you can't hold it together in a tribal society. i am not very optimistic. i think this morning waking up, this is one of the biggest developments, the speed with which it is